Six drivers of Hunger you might not expect
When you think of the global hunger crisis, the first picture that comes to mind for most of us is drought-dried earth and crops withering in the fields. It’s true that drought and other climate-related factors are a major driver of the current hunger crisis. Conflict, the rising cost of living and post-COVID economic instability are some of the other big ones that regularly make the news headlines. But hunger is complex, and some of the other reasons that children don’t have enough of the right food to grow healthy might surprise you. Here are six of them:
Storms and floods
It’s not just too little rain that kills crops but too much rain as well. Flooding can wipe away a year’s worth of crops - and whole communities’ source of food and means of earning a living - in one big weather event. Vital infrastructure like fences, irrigation channels, farming equipment and roads that are essential for accessing markets, as well as families’ homes and belongings, are often lost or damaged at the same time. The clean up and replacement of what was lost can be financially crippling for families, compounded by food prices rising because there is less locally available. And with storms becoming more frequent and more severe all around the world, the downward economic cycle triggered by natural disasters like flooding are becoming harder to escape. For families like Sipra’s in Pirojpur, Bangladesh, disasters like flooding and cyclones regularly sweep homes and crops away, and generational poverty means children grow up without essentials like enough food and healthcare.
“When crops get damaged by disasters, everything is gone. Then, getting food is difficult. We suffer a lot then.” - Sipra, sponsored child’s mother, Bangladesh
Lack of education
In some of the places we work, the ground is so fertile that things grow everywhere and crops flourish. And yet, there are still children who are malnourished, despite being surrounded by nutritious fruits and vegetables. That’s because low levels of education means their parents have never learned about nutrition and what children need to grow healthy, and the most affordable foods at the local stores are the highly processed, sugar- and fat-laden, low-nutrition options like noodles and crisps. Processed, imported food is often perceived as better than local fare. And let’s face it, getting a child to eat a packet of cookies over a plate of vegetables is easier for any parent anywhere. Often these children don’t look malnourished, because it’s not so much about what they’re not eating and more about what they are eating instead. Many parents aren’t aware that a child can be malnourished despite having plenty (of the wrong food) to eat.
“Families in rural communities usually have their crops and access to healthy foods. However, there isn't a culture of consuming them. Instead, they sell their produce and buy foods that are not healthy.” - Genesis Castrillo, World Vision Ecuador Nutrition Project Specialist
Teen pregnancy
Becoming pregnant as a teenager can be damaging for girls in lots of ways – physically, emotionally, socially and financially – and the effects can last for generations. Poverty is both a cause and consequence of teen pregnancy – girls living in poverty with lower levels of education are more likely to become pregnant, which in turn leads to lower education levels, fewer job opportunities and lower incomes for young mothers, making their children much more vulnerable to hunger. Ecuador, for instance, has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in South America, as well as one of the highest rates of child malnutrition.
“Children of teenage mothers often turn out to be malnourished and many times they are born with malnutrition because a pregnant teenage mother does not take care of herself in the same way as an older mother.” - Carmen Cando, Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion, "Creciendo con Nuestros Hijos" (Growing Up With Our Children) facilitator, Ecuador
Migration
People migrate for lots of reasons – to flee conflict, because of natural disasters, or to pursue better jobs or opportunities. Hunger can be a driver of migration too. But migration can also trigger hunger. Forced migrants and refugees are often moving to places with limited, stretched resources, and don’t have the land or stability to grow food. Migrants moving for work often find themselves earning less and spending more on housing and other essentials than they hoped, while also having to support their families at home too. In Vietnam, malnutrition is rife among children like Khoi who are left with their grandparents while their parents go to the city to work.
Lack of infrastructure
In some parts of the world, the biggest challenge to food security isn’t the lack of things like fertile soil or water needed to grow food – it’s a lack of the infrastructure needed to be able to use those resources effectively to produce and sell food. Without water pipes and drainage to make irrigation possible, farmers have to rely on sporadic rainfall and their harvests are lower and often fail. Without roads, fewer farmers can get their crops to market, which reduces the availability of food, drives up prices, and makes it harder for farmers to earn an income. In Abaya, Ethiopia, Yosef’s family lived so close to the river that they could hear it – but until sponsorship helped their community install water infrastructure, they couldn’t irrigate their crops.
“Sponsorship built an irrigation canal so that my father and other community members could produce crops three times a year, which has greatly improved our life. We now have enough clothing and eat three meals per day. We've now built a four-room home, and we no longer share it with cattle.”
Gender norms
Two in every three of the people facing severe food insecurity in the world today are women and girls. Women produce up to 80 percent of the food in developing countries, but at the same time, they face a string of gender-related challenges that make them more likely to be affected by hunger. Women and girls are less likely to be educated and given opportunities, less likely to be able to access financial services, less likely to have access to tools and fertiliser, and more likely to be expected to carry the full domestic load as well as work in the fields. Women face legal disadvantages too – in many countries, land rights belong to men and men make the household decisions about money. The consequences of gender inequality are very real and tangible, not just for women but for everyone connected to them - by hamstringing the potential of half of the population, gender inequality reduces families’, communities’ and nations’ productivity and earning potential, drives hunger, and entrenches generational poverty. When Hindiya’s husband left her, he sold the land that her father had given them and left her with nothing to support their two small sons.
“Things have changed after I met World Vision. Before I did not have anything, but now I have money to count. I can clothe my children, feed them and buy shoes. I am also able to support my sister’s children. My life has greatly improved."
THE SOLUTION
When you sponsor a child, you help address not just the symptoms but the drivers of hunger. Around the world, sponsors help communities to educate young people about their bodies and the importance of staying in school. You help families start small businesses to boost household incomes and local economies to provide alternatives to economic migration, and support peace-building and environment-rehabilitation initiatives to tackle the root causes of forced migration. You partner with communities to install essential infrastructure like water pumps, irrigation channels, tanks, roads and more. You help teach girls, boys, parents, teachers, faith leaders and community leaders about gender equality and how everyone wins when everyone has rights and opportunities.